The Last Time I Saw Her
by theblindbandit1
Summary: Oneshot anti-drug awareness story. Features the friendship between Toph and Katara until things go wrong. Rated T for language


April 16th.

That was the last day I saw her alive.

When I first met her, I would never thought of this being how she died. I grew up in a small town down south, she was a rich girl from the city. I had always heard of these things on the news, but it never crossed my mind that it could happen to me, or to someone I knew. If I had known, I might have been able to stop this.

I first met Toph when I moved to a boarding school in Ba Sing Se. Since my mom died things at home were never the same. With dad being in the military, he thought it would be better if we were at a school where there were more people our age.

She was sitting alone at one of the lunch tables, and by chance I sat down next to who would be my best friend in the world. She was two years younger than me, but we quickly became friends.

We met two years ago, and we used to do everything together. A few months ago, Toph's parents sent her a letter. They told her that her father had gotten a promotion and was being transferred to oversee one of factories in the Fire Nation. They were going to transfer her to a boarding school in the Fire Nation instead. From there, everything went down hill.

The first thing I should have noticed was that Toph didn't even bother to show up to classes anymore. She used to come to class just to flick paper clips at my brother the entire class, but now her seat was always empty. She was my roommate, but in the mornings she'd never be in her bed. I didn't see her again until I spotted her sitting with the drunks at one of the lunch tables.

In all reality, I didn't even realize it was her at first. I just thought that when I glanced around the cafeteria that she seemed familiar. Her face was bruised, her black hair unkempt with bright pink highlights, and the look of lack of sleep. I didn't know what to do, Toph was so stubborn that she hardly listened to me as it is. I made the biggest mistake of our friendship, I ignored it.

Or at least I tried. Soon enough the problem grew too large for me to just ignore. Our dorm room stank of tobacco smoke and alcohol, and after two weeks she started bringing guys by to go at it. My room became inhabitable for me and there was only one thing that I could do. Confront her.

When I went to talk to her, I found her popping pills in one of the school bathrooms near the gym. "Toph!" I yelled and bent water from my bottle whipping the pill bottle from her hand. "What the hell is going on with you?" I snapped. She didn't even blink.

"What do you want Katara?" She asked, acting as if nothing was wrong in the world. Her eyes creeped me out, the pupils were way too big for the whites. She couldn't even stand up straight, though she was trying to hide it I could tell she was using the sink to keep her balance.

"What do I want? What do I want? Have you looked in the mirror lately? All you ever do is drink, get high and screw around day and night Toph! You're not yourself anymore, and I'm worried about you! All your doing is ruining your body!" I shouted, letting my feelings flow with the words I had longed to say since I first saw her new lifestyle. "This isn't healthy Toph! You're throwing your life away!"

"I'm not moving to the Fire Nation Katara. If I can't stay here then I don't really care what happens to me." She said, then pushed past me heading out of the bathroom. I quickly grabbed her shoulder, but before I knew what had happened there was a sharp pain in my wrist. She had pulled a knife on me and slashed my wrist before I had any chance to prevent her. She had gotten away from me.

I never saw her alive again.

She never came back to our room that night. What I read in the paper is that she died of a drug overdose sometime in the early morning of April 17th. She turned 16 that night, but was long gone by morning.

I know that I can't blame myself, but I keep asking myself what would have happened if I had gotten her help sooner. She might still be alive today if I hadn't ignored her for so long. I feel an immense amount of guilt every time I hear her name.

I lost my best friend because of drugs and I only have one piece of advise for anyone who is in the position like mine.

Don't ignore it.

It could be a life, not a friendship, that you save.


End file.
